Ah, can't believe I only have one chapter left after this! Mslead will be taking over soon, and let me tell you guys, things are gonna start heating up...

chapter 17: freezing point

definition:

The temperature at which a liquid changes into a solid; the same temperature as the melting point.

Her body, once lax and warm with pleasure, began to coil and tighten like a spring, and Natsu–confused by the change–looked up at her. Lucy's brown eyes were round and huge, her plump lips swollen red, her cheeks flushed a pretty pink…and she was staring at him as if he were a stranger.

That look was like ice water on his arousal.

Natsu, his chest aching, yanked away from her so fast he nearly fell flat on his ass. He fumbled around for his towel, furious and embarrassed for thinking that she could possibly want him so desperately.

Lucy blinked once, twice, a third time before finally coming back to the present and sitting up very slowly. "Natsu," she rasped, her voice cracking. "I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me. That was very inappropriate, and I don't have any excuses for myself - "

"Yeah, well, I wouldn't wanna fuck an ex-felon either," he snarked half-heartedly, tugging the towel around his hips. "It's cool."

"No!" she shouted, scrambling off the couch after him, her nudity all-but forgotten to her. Lucy's hands landed on his forearms. "It's not that at all! I just… With my job, and you being a consultant and an asset… I can't sleep with you," she explained on a sigh.

"Wait, wait," he shook his head, a frown forming, "lemme get this straight… It's because of your job? Nothing else?"

His detective swallowed, and little by little, her cool facade slipped back on. The rosy hue to her cheeks faded and her brown eyes simmered back down. "…That's right," she admitted in a small voice.

"Because of your job." Natsu nodded his head, running his tongue over his teeth. He could still taste her–strawberries with just a hint of cream. "You don't wanna mix work and pleasure, I get it," he said.

As always with her, the job came first and everything else came second.

Though, Natsu supposed he didn't exactly have any room to feel so betrayed. He'd gotten so much more than he deserved from her, more than he'd ever dreamed of getting. With her, he supposed he should be grateful for even placing in her list of priorities.

But damn, that still didn't dissolve seven years' worth of sexual frustration.

"I just…can't. Not right now," Lucy told him as she shook her blonde head, the rumpled mess tempting him.

It reminded him that he still had yet to see her with her hair down and free. Eventually, he told himself, he would fix that. Just not today.

"Yeah. So…you might wanna cover up or something," he coughed, dragging his eyes away from her luscious, bare breasts and to something over her shoulder.

Lucy glanced down curiously, squeaking after realizing she was still half-naked, and then she scrambled to the couch to locate her t-shirt. After she tugged it back on, smoothing out the creases that he'd put in it, Natsu was able to breathe easier.

She was too tempting for her own good sometimes.

"So, that was…" she started, sitting back down on the couch and looking at the floor. He half expected her to say something along the lines of "a mistake", but what came from her kiss-swollen mouth was thankfully something different. "That was…something else," Lucy murmured, bringing her fingertips to her mouth.

Natsu, standing there in nothing but his towel, should not have been relieved. But he was.

"That's one word for it," he mumbled, scratching the back of his head.

Lucy picked her head back up, that professional mask still glued to her face, but her eyes snagged on something. And the longer he stood there, with one hand clutching his towel and the other cupping his neck, the more he realized that she was staring at him. Or rather, at the still-deflating bulge hidden by his towel.

Heat flared again in those brown eyes, and Natsu felt his own stomach stir with awareness.

Shit. Not good.

Coughing again, he said, "You got any clean sweatpants I could borrow or something? I mean, I know I'm nice to look at and all, but I'd like to be able to use my left hand." He glanced down at the hand fisted in his towel for emphasis, a smirk turning up the corners of his mouth.

Lucy, having been caught, flushed a bright red and her professional facade crumbled. "Oh. Oh, yeah, of course. I'll just go…" she stammered, bolting up and dashing to her laundry room around the corner.

She returned mere moments later, a wad of grey cloth in her hands that she offered to him nonchalantly.

"These are the only ones I have that might fit you," the detective admitted, watching as he shook them out with his right hand.

They were long and wide, made out of soft cotton, and they definitely looked like they could fit him.

"Thanks," he said, and let his white towel drop to the floor in a ring around his ankles.

Lucy, having not expected such a bold move, released a high-pitched eep and slapped one hand over her eyes. "What are you doing?" she demanded hotly.

One of Natsu's brows lifted as he stuffed his feet into the sweatpants. "I'm getting dressed? Why are you so embarrassed? You literally saw me naked like ten minutes ago," he mused as he pulled the material up over his trim hips, successfully covering himself. When Lucy didn't say anything, choosing to stand there with her hand over her eyes and a furious blush on her cheeks, he chuckled. "You can look now, detective, I'm all covered up."

Her slender fingers parted just enough for her to peek. And after seeing for herself that he was decent, her hands dropped to her hips as a chiding frown crossed her features.

"Huh…" Natsu glanced down at himself instead of meeting her gaze and fingered the waistband of his newfound sweatpants. They actually fit really well, he realized. A little too well. "Are these men's sweats?" he asked, tossing Lucy a confused look.

Why on earth would she own a pair of men's sweatpants? Unless…

"What?" Her eyes jerked upwards from where they had been glued to his hips. "Oh, yeah, they are," she said with a shrug. "They're actually Gray's–he left them here a while ago so I kinda just stole them."

Natsu felt something in his gut flop.

God, he hadn't even checked to make sure that she was single before he'd decided to ravish her. Not that he thought her the kind of girl to cheat, but it was clear that neither of them had been thinking very clearly earlier. It would be bad enough if she actually had a boyfriend, but for it to be Gray? That icy, stone cold, back-stabbing bastard?

Natsu shook himself back into the present.

"Wait, what?" He scowled, tugging at the hems of the sweatpants. "You're giving me that bastard's sweats?"

Lucy looked beyond puzzled as her head fell to the side. "…Yes?"

"…Fair enough, I guess," he muttered after a little while, feeling strangely guilty.

She'd let him invade her home, commandeer her shower, and borrow a pair of sweatpants, and here he was complaining. He almost wanted to smack himself–he'd made do with a lot worse than his arch nemesis's clothes when he'd been a street rat.

He'd never had room to be picky and he wouldn't start now.

Yet…there was one thing that bothered him for some reason. "You guys are…friends?" he asked hesitantly, because he just had to know.

"Yeah, you could say that." Lucy's blonde head bobbed, her hair falling into her eyes. She puffed out a breath, blowing the strands away. "He's my partner but he acts more like my older brother." She paused then, fixing him with a strange look–like she was almost worried. "Don't worry, we're not dating or anything."

He nearly spluttered.

Nearly.

"I wasn't worried!" Natsu protested, hoping that the flush he felt on his cheeks could be chalked up to the muggy summer night and the open window in her living room. "Besides, if you had been dating him, I don't think you would've even touched me," he grumbled.

Natsu had spent seven years staring at the ugly mugs of his prison-mates, and he knew that he was considered attractive if those grabby hands he'd had to beat off were anything to go by. But, still, even he knew that he couldn't compete with a guy like Gray Fullbuster.

Gray wasn't just beautiful. He was…pretty.

And girls seemed to like pretty.

"I don't know…" Lucy sighed, bringing Natsu back to the conversation. "You're pretty tempting, Natsu Dragneel. I wasn't even thinking straight because of you," she breathed, brown eyes glazing over as though she were reliving the moment.

He had to told himself back, refrain from touching the pretty picture she made.

Sloppy blonde hair falling out of its bun, rosy cheeks, warm eyes, parted lips, and soft skin all stuffed into a rumpled t-shirt that swallowed up the cotton shorts she was wearing.

"Yeah…" he managed out of a half-strangled throat, coughing. "About that back there? Sorry I was such a grouch," he apologized…and it felt strange.

It'd been a long time since he'd felt the need to genuinely apologize to someone else.

Just what the hell was this detective doing to him?

"It's just…being in prison for seven years, I didn't really have the opportunity to, you know," Natsu mumbled gesturing between himself and the still dazed-looking Lucy, "and all of that kinda just builds up." That was putting it rather mildly, he thought. All those things he should have felt as a dumb teenager had hibernated until this point, and now they were erupting and fizzing out of his control. "And even before prison, I'd never…" he continued, and then slowly stopped himself.

Shit, he hadn't meant to tell her that much. Hopefully, she didn't understand…

"Never…touched someone?" Lucy finished softly, peering up at him through thick lashes.

God dammit all.

"Like that?" Natsu swallowed before shaking his head and admitting, "No."

For a moment, there was utter silence and nothing happened. But then, Lucy's bittersweet chocolate eyes blew wide and her mouth popped open in a perfect little 'O' as comprehension dawned on her.

"…Oh." Her voice was a near squeak.

"Yeah…"

Jesus Christ, how embarrassing was that? Admitting that he was an inexperienced, horny bastard to his gorgeous detective? His gorgeous detective who, undoubtedly, had some idea of what she was doing, unlike himself.

Natsu covered his surely red face with a single hand, scrubbing it up and down.

"Well, I think I made the right decision then," said gorgeous detective mused. Natsu peered at her through his parted fingers as she held up a hand. "I mean, there's the job, first of all," Lucy said and lifted a finger. "Second of all, I'd hate to take advantage of you." Another finger rose to join the first. "And third, I know a little about you…but you don't really know anything about me, do you?" she asked as a third finger slowly lifted.

Natsu's hand flopped uselessly to his side, his jaw clenching in offense.

"Of course I…" he started to say, and then stopped.

Because, really, what did he know about his detective? Besides the fact that she was pretty, and blonde, with the best rack he'd ever seen, and had a tendency to wear cat pajamas. When he couldn't honestly recall anything substantial, he was struck with his answer.

…He really didn't know anything about her.

"You're right, I don't," was his shocked response. And that was unacceptable, he knew as he meandered to the couch and plopped down next to her. "…Tell me?" he pleaded, pushing his thigh against hers.

He always enjoyed flustering the usually cool and professional detective. Her reactions proved to be amusing, like now.

"What do you want to know?" Lucy tried to scoot over just a little bit to avoid having their thighs pressing so closely.

Natsu only followed her. "Tell me about how you grew up," he said. "What was it like for you?"

He wanted to know about that little girl in the pink dress on her mantle, the one with the bright smile and blonde ringlets. He wanted to know what, exactly, had turned that sweet little girl into the cool and determined woman that sat next to him now.

Detective Lucy Heartfilia was a complete mystery to him. And though he'd never been one for mysteries, much less solving mysteries, before, Natsu found that he wanted nothing more than to unravel her.

She'd mentioned her father once before and he'd sense some sort of…resentment. Or maybe it hadn't been resentment–but some other long buried emotion. Something almost bitter and sad.

But he wanted to know for sure. He wanted to know her. Just like she wanted to know him.

"I had a…good life for the most part," Lucy began slowly. And though she claimed to have had a good life, her guarded tone suggested anything but that. "Only child of very wealthy parents, and all," she said with a sardonic laugh, gesturing to herself. "My parents owned a big company, Love & Lucky."

Love & Lucky…

Natsu's brows furrowed as he turned the name over in his mind. It sounded familiar, but only vaguely so. He knew he'd heard of it before, but it had been such a long time–probably from before he'd gone to prison.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, he recalled Erza's open and rare smile as she held up a simple t-shirt. "Look," she'd gushed, "we got enough money so I could buy Heart Kreuz! Isn't it cool?" She'd modeled that plain shirt for him and Jellal and had worn it for ages until it had practically fallen apart at the seams.

Clothes, Natsu remembered.

"I remember them," Natsu admitted with a slow nod. Heart Kreuz had been a popular clothing line from the Love & Lucky company. "The big fashion company, right? That just disappeared one day?"

He recalled that from his early days in prison. The multi-million dollar company's sudden downfall had made headlines for weeks on end, creating shockwaves in the business world.

End of the Line for Love & Lucky, had headed various newspapers for the longest time.

And here, Natsu thought with no small amount of surprise, his detective was actually the heir to such a prestigious company. Or, at least, she had been at one point. From what he knew about business and marketing, and that wasn't much, once a big company like that was gone…it wasn't coming back.

Not without huge backlash, at least.

"That's right," Lucy mused wryly after having seen the surprise on his face. "I grew up in a big house with maids and butlers and I went to private schools and summer camps." The disdain for her own wealth was practically palpable.

And Natsu wouldn't lie.

At first he was jealous–he couldn't help himself. What would his life have been like, he wondered, if he'd grown up like that? In a cushy suburban household where money was the least of his problems and he could go to school like all the other normal little boys and girls? With a father who was still alive and maybe even a mom?

That jealousy of his lasted no longer than a split second.

Fate had dealt him a different hand, after all, and he'd made the best of it. He wouldn't have been who he was today if he'd had a different fate–and for better or for worse, Natsu was relatively pleased with how he'd turned out.

Besides, if he'd had a different life, he wouldn't have met Erza and Jellal. Or Lucy, for that matter.

"But then when I was eight…"

His attention snapped back to Lucy at the sound of the hitch in her voice.

And his heart squeezed painfully in his chest at the sight of her wobbly bottom lip. The detective tried to steady it by holding it still with her teeth. "My mom was diagnosed with cancer. Stage Three Leukemia, too late for any treatment the doctors said." The words tumbled out of her mouth in a rush, her face contorting with misery.

Natsu knew that look well; no matter how many years passed, the pain was still ever-present. He understood that.

Lucy shook her rumpled blonde head as though to settle herself, clearing her throat. "She passed away a few months later and it was just so sudden that both me and my dad were in shock for the longest time…" Brown eyes glazed over, reliving things that he wouldn't ever be able to see.

His chest ached for her, with empathy. He remembered being there.

The shock and the horror, but most of all the foolhardy denial. The delusion that everything was all just a bad dream and that he needed to wake up.

Yeah, Natsu thought as he eyed her, he could relate.

"I was…really sad," Lucy murmured, pale lips barely moving. "I stopped seeing my friends and going to summer camp, and things were hard for a while, but I got better." She nodded to herself, as a sort of reminder Natsu thought, that she had gotten better. Her face began to regain its natural rosy-hue, her pallid skin tone fading as she rediscovered her confidence. "My dad, though…he never recovered," Lucy said on a sigh.

Natsu didn't miss the way her tone took a suddenly sharp turn at the mention of her father.

"He threw himself into his work," she explained with a wave of her hand, "and came home later and later, ignored me without meaning to… He missed my high school graduation for a business meeting." Here, she paused and her lips trembled again for the briefest moment. But Lucy squashed the movement with a hard frown. "Eventually, he worked himself to death, right before I entered the police academy."

It felt like a rock plummeted into Natsu's stomach. His insides felt heavy, his throat dry, and if his chest had ached before, it was fucking throbbing now. And he honestly didn't know what to do with himself, because it wasn't like he could just order himself to knock it off. No, he was feeling these emotions because of someone else, and he had no clue how to stop.

The last time he'd experience such strong feelings, invoked by another person, had been when Igneel had died. Now, because of Lucy and her misery… Misery that, again, he understood.

Being an orphan was more than a hard knock fucking life.

He and Lucy…were more similar than he'd realized.

"What's funny, though," Lucy huffed out on an exasperated-sounding chuckle, "is that right before he died, he tried to reestablish what we had when I was little girl. He gave me money and clothes and basically anything I wanted but I just pushed him away out of anger." Her hands tried to keep themselves busy by knotting in her t-shirt.

But…her fingers kept twisting and she stopped speaking, too caught up in the memories. Her eyes were foggy with unshed tears, pain in her every feature and Natsu…Natsu was angry. Not at her–no, of course not–but at himself, because there wasn't a single thing he could do to make it better.

All he really could do was gently take her hand and smooth out her curled fingers.

But that seemed to be enough for his strong detective, because she snapped out of her reverie and the tears dried before they could fall. Her hand clutched his. "Then he was gone," she murmured. "And in his will, he named me the sole heir of all his possessions and wealth. I sold his house, the shares to his company, all of the assets and vacation homes…" Lucy frowned then, a line in her brow. "I didn't want anything to do with him or his money."

The words were spoken as though she thought she owed him some sort of explanation for her actions. She didn't, of course, but Natsu nodded anyway and Lucy seemed comforted by that.

"So right before I entered the police academy, I had no mother or father; all I had was a bank account full of money that my dad had cherished more than he cherished me." The black scowl on her face nearly shocked him–he'd never seen a look so dark on her. "I hated it," she seethed, "I hated the money, and I didn't want to use it…but…what else was I going to do, you know?" One of her shoulders lifted in a shrug and she shook her finger at the roof, her eyes rolling. "This condo? My cop salary definitely can't pay for it."

Yes, Natsu had known that from the start.

No cop had a place as nice as she did–no cop without a little family pull, that was. It appeared his initial suspicion, the first time he'd set foot in her condo, had been right. Just…not in the way that he'd suspected.

And a part of him wondered…if some of the world–her cop world–still saw her like that? A clueless heiress trying to play the role of a cop? If that was the reason she worked so hard and did everything in "detective mode"?

Even the uptown world was ruthless in its own ways.

He had to stop the growl in his throat before she had a chance to hear it.

"I try not to use that money, though. I want to earn my own status in this world," Lucy said firmly, her hand gripping his tighter, "to prove that I can make it on my own."

And she had made it in the world, Natsu thought with pride. She'd become a badass detective without the help of her influential family name or her money. She'd found something she was damn good at all on her own.

If that wasn't an achievement, he didn't know what was.

They'd lived very similar lives, Natsu noted with a half-grin. But whereas he'd decided that his path lay in destruction and hellfire, she'd devoted her life to something worthwhile. Natsu had to admire that.

"And that's…that's the story of Lucy Heartfilia, the poor little rich girl who became a detective," Lucy laughed sarcastically, motioning to herself. But even though she laughed, it was clear that she thought little of her accomplishment.

And that hurt Natsu more than anything.

"…I'm sorry, Lucy," he rasped, dragging his thumb over the back of her hand.

"Why?" The blonde gave him a truly perplexed look, her head falling to the side with a small smile. "You had it much worse than - "

"Suffering ain't a contest, detective," he interrupted with a hot glower, locking his eyes with hers. Bittersweet chocolate started to melt, and she glanced down. "You had a hard life and so did I, no if's and's or but's 'bout that, okay?" Natsu's thumb continued stroking. "It just gives us something in common."

The teeniest, tiniest smile spread across Lucy's face as she looked back up at him. "…Yeah, I guess it does," she agreed. "Thank you, Natsu…"

He leaned back into the couch, her hand still entwined in his, with an unrepentant grin.

That, he decided, was what he wanted to see. Her–smiling. Her genuine smiles were so very rare, each one was a treasure that he was sure he'd begin to covet in time. He didn't think he knew why, exactly, but then again…he now knew that he didn't need a damn reason to want to see her smiles.

He just did. End of story.

And considering that they'd spent more than a few hours reflecting on tragedy, and childhood misery, Natsu thought that the both of them could use a smile or two. So, he launched into a familiar tale.

"You know…this one time," he began with a beaming chuckle, "Jellal came back to our base with a tick on his forehead. And, Jesus Christ, I don't think I'd ever seen Erza scream so loud…"

As more hours passed, Lucy's smile became more frequent. Each one as brilliant and meaningful as the one before. Her laughter made everything dark and pitiful inside his heart feel weightless and opaque for once, like some sort of cleansing water. And her laughter, too, was something he decided to covet. Even though she tried to hide her smiles and laughter behind her dainty hands more than once, it still made something in him thrive.

The more she laughed, the more she opened up. The more she opened up, the even more he learned about her. Nothing jaw-dropping, really–just the trifling matters.

For example, he learned that her favorite color was pink, that she had a secret hoard of fuzzy socks, and that she had a profound love for anything chocolate. Her specific words had been "chocolate junkie". He also learned that his very serious madam detective liked to sleep in her underwear–which he would be filing away for personal reasons.

And with every new detail that he learned about her, he gave her something in return. His favorite food, the fact that he'd held onto a stuffed dragon toy until he'd been thirteen, and that he'd actually cried when he'd gotten his ear pierced.

Usually, it was like pulling teeth for him to share his private life. But, with her…with Lucy…he just wanted to give. He wanted to be unselfish, to learn, and for her to learn about him as well.

It was…kind of beautiful, really. The simplicity of a basic human connection.

And yet it meant so much to him.

It had been so long since he'd just simply let himself…be. So long, in fact, that the hours passed without him even noticing. Midnight, two AM, four… They just kept talking and laughing until their voices were both hoarse and they could barely manage coughing giggles.

Lucy fell asleep somewhere close to five in the morning, her blonde head bobbing and bobbing before finally settling against his shoulder. Just like that night before, little more than a week ago. She buried her nose into the hollow of his collar bone, exhaling on his skin and sending a shiver racing down his spine.

He was sprawled out in a mess of long limbs, his feet pushing against her coffee table. The position was hardly comfortable, but Lucy was perfectly content. And Happy had decided to join them at some point, snuggling into Natsu's lap with that neverending vibrating–which he'd learned was called purring. Therefore, Natsu decided he could stick it out.

So, even though his back would be killing him in the morning, and he'd have a crick in his neck, and his calves would hate him, Natsu settled into a relatively peaceful sleep with his head resting atop of Lucy's.

And this time?

He didn't wake up at some obscure hour and go home.

Ohoho, progress in their relationship? Looks like they're more understanding of each other now... Stay tuned!

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Omg this is the most reviews for a single chapter that we've gotten yet. Thank you all so much! It means a lot.

We also had a question about whether or not we have enjoyed this collab, and I think I can speak for all three of us when I say yes. Working with two other talented writers has been so much fun and it really makes the process of writing bearable. We were able to bounce ideas off each other and edit each other's work without fear of being too critical. It's amazing.

Please be sure to leave your thoughts again this chapter!